The rise of the Harris Theater

At age 5, the Millennium Park venue has become a pivotal part of Chicago's cultural landscape with a slate of programming to rival any single-venue arts center in the nation

September 14, 2008|By Chris Jones, TRIBUNE CRITIC

Millennium Park was still a muddy construction site when the Music and Dance Theater opened five years ago on a culturally forgotten stretch of East Randolph Street.

For the supporters of a controversial, subterranean arts venue, a 20-year slog was pockmarked with myriad changes of site, persistent funding problems and a chorus of naysayers who argued a 1,500-seat venue wasn't needed in downtown Chicago. To finally get the cranes moving, the 93-year-old philanthropist Irving B. Harris had to pony up a $24 million construction loan.

"There isn't much chance of being paid back on this thing," Harris told a visitor to his apartment in October 2003, affecting a tone of wry resignation.

Things have progressed.

Five years on, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance -- as it was later named, in honor of Irving and his wife, Joan -- has become a pivotal part of Chicago's cultural landscape with a slate of programming to rival any single-venue arts center in the nation.

This fall, the Harris will host such marquee names as the San Francisco Ballet, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim in Recital.

And there is a lighter side to this theater astride a booming cultural park. Mickey Hart, drummer of the Grateful Dead, will bring his Global Drum Project. The Chicago Humanities Festival will co-present a musical pageant about the Transcontinental Railroad.

Issues and debt remain. When the Harris was built, it was expected that most people would enter from the parking garage and thus already be on the lower level. It did not work out that way. With Millennium Park bustling and new restaurants opening up nearby, most patrons now come in from the street and are then faced with limited elevators or a daunting flight of stairs. That will need addressing.

Originally, the Harris was conceived as a venue for a dozen constituent local groups. Some of those groups remain, including the Chicago Opera Theatre. Some went out of business, including Performing Arts Chicago. But the Harris also reinvented itself as a presenter in its own right.

Debates rage about the right blend of local and national attractions and, indeed, what those attractions should be. Economic perils remain, especially in a tough climate for the arts.

But the Harris is now a player: no question.

Irving Harris, who died in 2004, did not get to spend much time in the theater he paid to build.

"The theater now has a record of achievement far in excess of what either of us expected," his wife, Joan, said in an interview earlier this week. "We've maintained our commitment to the local groups, and we're presenting world-class performances. My only regret is that Irving isn't here to see and enjoy all the promise."

And his construction loan? Repaid in full.

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MORE INSIDE

*Tribune critics John von Rhein, Howard Reich and Sid Smith look at the successes and failures of the Harris for classical, jazz and dance programming and presentations. PAGE 5